Council members approved a resolution to request "a vigorous review of the facts and conditions" into the incarceration of Jabin Akeem Bogan, who was arrested April 17 by Mexican authorities at the Bridge of the Americas with 268,000 rounds of ammunition.

The resolution also requests that the Mexican Attorney General's office release Bogan without "political considerations" and urges the U.S. ambassador to Mexico to help expedite the release.

REPORTER

Aileen B. Flores

Bogan, 27, of Dallas, is currently being held in a federal prison in Veracruz, in southeastern Mexico.

Bogan's family, friends and lawyer have said Bogan ended up in Mexico by accident when he made a wrong turn toward the Bridge of the Americas.

A Mexican judge has acknowledged Bogan attempted to return to the U.S. after he realized he had crossed into Mexico, said Carlos Spector, Bogan's attorney.

Bogan has been charged with clandestine importation of ammunition and faces five to 30 years in jail, Spector said.

"We are just here to ask this City Council to support this young man in his efforts to obtain justice in Mexico," Spector told council members Tuesday.

Advertisement

The resolution was supported by council members and leaders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in El Paso.

"It is very obvious Bogan made a mistake," said Mayor John Cook. "The arms were not hidden."

Cook is confident Bogan is going to be released but the question is when, he said.

The next step is to get federal officials interested in Bogan's case, Cook said.

Since early this week, city Rep. Carl Robinson led the drive for the resolution, but he took a different tone in April 2011 when the City Council discussed a similar resolution on behalf of El Pasoans Shohn Erich Huckabee and Carlos Guillermo Quijas.

The men were arrested in December 2009 on charges of possession of marijuana. They insisted the drug had been planted in their vehicle as it had been in others' cars crossing the border in the past.

With Huckabee's father, Kevin Huckabee, at the podium, Robinson questioned at length whether it was the council's role to pass such resolutions.

"Do we want to delve into foreign policy?" Robinson asked. "If we are, then we have a multitude of U.S. citizens around the world incarcerated in foreign countries.

REPORTER

Marty Schladen

Are we going to take a stand on those?"

Robinson ended up voting with the rest of the council to support the resolution, and on Tuesday he said he only was trying to call attention to American prisoners in Mexico.

"If we're going to be interested in one, let's be interested in all," Robinson after Tuesday's council meeting.

Robinson also said that Bogan drove into Mexico by accident, while Huckabee and Quijas went there voluntarily.

Aileen B. Flores may be reached at aflores@elpasotimes.com; 546-6362.

Marty Schladen may be reached at mschladen@elpasotimes.com; 546-6127.

Other City Council action In other action:

Council approved the $1.4 million purchase of the three-story garage at 120 W. San Antonio St.

The proposal to exclude El Paso's Two Percent for Arts Program from the funding of the street infrastructure capital plan for 2013-19 was deleted. The action might add $14 million to the $468 million quality-of-life bond issue in November.

The city will remove the chain-link fence around a park at Doniphan and Country Club roads in the Upper Valley.

The Texas Department of Transportation presented the proposed maps for the Loop 375 Border Highway West Extension Project. A meeting will take place from 4 to 8 p.m. today at UTEP's El Paso Natural Gas Conference Center.